


Caterpillar to Greatness

by CawCawAJ



Series: Drastic Changes || Same Faces [1]
Category: Herbert West - Reanimator - H. P. Lovecraft, Re-Animator (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Insanity, Temporary Character Death, herbert was normal before hans fucked him over
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-15 00:02:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21024434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CawCawAJ/pseuds/CawCawAJ
Summary: Dr. Hans Gruber was many things.Dr. Herbert West was even more things after his mentor takes drastic measures(Set before the first Re-Animator movie)





	Caterpillar to Greatness

**Author's Note:**

> So as y'all can tell, I haven't been writing and posting every Saturday. I can't do that anymore, I'm trying to write when I can, and I'll publish whenever I can, but being a fulltime student and working fulltime on top of that kind of cuts your free time down a lot.

Dr. Hans Gruber was a brilliant man.

His research delved beyond anything that anyone had ever seen. He, along with his protégé, had made incredible breakthroughs in their research of brain death and breaking that down.

Dr. Hans Gruber wasn't an irrational man.

He was always rather fond of Herbert West and how eager the other was to please and to learn. It was definitely one reason why Gruber had gotten so far in his progress and in the creation of the re-agent. Herbert West was not only a kindhearted yet serious pupil, but he was also brilliant in his own right.

But Herbert West lacked the vision that Gruber possessed, lacked the will to get his hands truly dirty.

Dr. Hans Gruber was a selfless man.

He'd given Herbert West so much knowledge and room for growth during the time that the two had been student and teacher. Sometimes, the younger man frustrated him to no end on how predictable he could be. He was a meek soul missing a spine. Gruber, for all his love of the boy, as if he were his son, hated and resented the fact that West lacked the spine or the willpower to be adventurous.

Dr. Hans Gruber wasn't a cruel man.

He merely wished to guide Herbert West to a new era of his research ability, of his hunger for knowledge and desire to test the waters further than what Gruber said to do or not to do.

He didn't feel guilty in the slightest for the actions he took that night. Why should he? This was for West's own good, for god's sake! The man would never break free from the shell holding him back if Hans hadn't done what he did. It wasn't as if it was going to change him.

Dr. Hans Gruber was an impatient man.

Mice weren't enough as test subjects for the re-agent. His dear pupil believed that they should migrate to slightly larger animals. A cat was briefly mentioned, but Gruber saw the distaste in his young student's eyes and knew, just knew, that the other was going to be unable to get his hands dirty for the good of the work.

Mice were too small and the results were all the same. They had to move up in size and try something new. But Hans wasn't the most patient of men.

The re-agent was meant for human use, so why not test it out?

Dr. Hans Gruber was a secretive man.

He made sure nobody was going to interrupt their work that night. Nobody would come by, nobody would get close enough to hear what he would do. Part of him told himself he shouldn't do this and should drop to his knees and beg for forgiveness for the mere thoughts in his mind. The other part of himself was eager, excited, even, for what was to come.

Poor innocent Herbert West never even knew what hit him (an icepick in the back of the neck and spine).

Poor, poor West.

Dr. Hans Gruber was a murderer.

What better way to carry on the work of a lifetime than to immortalize it within his most patient and helpful student? Herbert West, the man that was a son to him, would be the first child of the re-agent. He would be the one that Gruber would pick up from the ground and show to the world. He would show them that this man was alive after death, he was alive and well.

Dr. Hans Gruber was crazy.

But dear Dr. Herbert West was the insane one now. After all, the first test on a human subject never seemed to go as intended, as hoped.

Gruber was rather happy he'd made sure nobody would be close enough to hear them that night, especially after the scream that West produced at the rebirth of his previously dead life echoed through the workspace.

It was then, however, when Gruber truly learned that the re-agent was rather good at making the sane become insane. In his own tunnel vision for his work, he'd realized far too late that his belief in bringing back the student-son was to be short-lived. Herbert was nonverbal in English but could and would scream from time to time.

Dr. Hans Gruber was a regretful man.

Believing the re-agent would bring him back and all would be well, Gruber lost one of the only people he could still consider someone close to him. He'd murdered his pupil and called it science.

Herbert spoke that day in actual words, using and making actual sentences. He was overjoyed when he learned, of course, that this was happening. He'd thought it meant he was getting the real Herbert West back.

But then Herbert West had to go and stick Gruber with his own medicine. Hans Gruber had to die so that the work could live.

Perhaps, now Gruber knew how West had felt when he had murdered the man in cold blood. Betrayal in the few seconds he had between the realization of pain and then of death.

Yes, Dr. Hans Gruber was many things, but Dr. Herbert West had been opened to the realm of being much more.

In a way, the teacher did bring the student to brilliancy after all.

**Author's Note:**

> So, this fic was just one of the two personal headcanons that this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UswKc8Grh0 sparked in me.
> 
> Both are that Herbert West was a perfectly fine and normal person before he started shooting himself up with Re-Agent. This route is that Hans killed Herbert and used him as the first human test subject, but Herbert has to keep juicing on it to stay alive now. 
> 
> The second headcanon potential was that Herbert never died, he just somehow found reason to start shooting up re-agent and it altered his mind and drove him crazy
> 
> I'm going to do more with this. And btw, I'm a hardcore Dan Cain and Herbert West shipper, so y'all will probably see that here in this fic set whenever I write it


End file.
